A SORT OF SEMI-FINAL It is hard to believe, the season seems to have only come alive and yet when the sun sets on this weekend no less than 11 teams will have come to the end of the road that was 2014! All season long I have been encouraging folks to get out and see games, this is the last weekend with a full program of matches to take advantage of. Last Sunday those who made the journey to Westmanstown were well rewarded with some of the best footballing displays this country has ever seen. That is the rub. You are either one of those who saw it first hand and in person, or you are fed up of hearing about the great plays from those who went. The relentless Vikings defence who stifled the Trojans offensive efforts for so long. The Trojans defence who uncorked the bottle and allowed the Belfast attack to pour on the points in an impressive last gasp display. The Rob McDowell return that seemed to be superimposed from an ESPN highlight reel onto our field. The poise of the Trinity passing attack! The Rebels fighting spirit that never gave anyone an easy play and kept the intensity in a game that was long gone on the scoreboard. All of the virtues of Irish Football at its best on display on one field. Should anyone try to change the format of the relatively new Semi-Final Doubleheaders they will have to explain away all of the benefits we experienced last week. People from every corner of the Island made the pilgrimage and if you ask any of them was it worth it…… well have a look at the feedback on social media! The teams ending their season this weekend all hail from the lower divisions of IAFA. While there was no semi-final set for IAFL 1, this division once again provides us with a cracking, nail biting end to its second ever year. With UCD firmly ensconced in the top spot, Cork & Mullingar will tomorrow slug it out in a winner takes all (or tie for the Ads) game. One of the nice thing about IAFL 1 for this season is that every team meets each other home and away, which means the problematic head to head tie breaker is no trouble at all. In fact it works really really well. Sundays game in Cork has become a de-facto semi-final with a place in the IAFL-1 showcase game up for grabs. The potential for a move to the SBC is also on table and who would not like a crack at emulating the North Kildare Reapers in 2015? The game itself will hinge on a few ponderables. How well will the Minotaurs travel to Cork. It is one of the longest journeys undertaken by anyone all year, Cork did not travel so well when they lost in the reverse of this fixture on June 8th. In fact it was one of the few times Cork were held scoreless. Cork have been imperious at home. Registering big and crucial wins close to home all year long. The imbalance in form is something of an issue that needs to be addressed in the future, but this weekend they have home field advantage and plan to make it count. As teams go Mullingar’s road form is not too bad. They do tend to score and have won on the road. They key for them is shutting down or at least limiting Corks high octane offense. The Admirals have shown more potential than they have realised with their attack. Perhaps one of the best young quarterbacks in Ireland at moment, Stephen Hayes, needs more production from other elements in his offence. Corks running game has never exploited the space generated when defences set up to stop the pass. The yards are there to be taken, but experience is at a premium in this division and while the Cork backs are learning as they go, it will be a while yet before a balance is found. With a lack of cohesion in the ground attack the air game has to be perfect & like all passing attacks perfection through 4 quarters is rare. Patchy displays of brilliance from the receivers corps is bound to improve over time and in a league where scoring is sparse and few good connections a game could make the difference between winning and winning big. The message for Mullingar is simple – coral the Cork wideouts, limit Hayes his 2nd and 3rd reads on the passing game and make Cork run the football….. simple eh! Well yes simple to say. The Minotaurs are approaching this game with the same preparation you might expect from a team heading to Shamrock Bowl. They are traveling down to Cork as a team on the day before and setting up camp in the real capital for the long weekend. Perhaps removing the road, from an away game day will help them replicate the form that saw them shut out Cork back in week 12. With everything up to play for and the potential end of the road of one of these fine teams this is a must see game for anyone in the area. Another potential gem with young players ripping up the field. 14 – 29 at the half, the second IAFL-1 game sees old Dv-8’s rivals resume hostilities in a game that has more at stake for the individuals than it does on the league table. Last week I threw down a gauntlet to a pair of teams, who in my estimation have underperformed all year long. The Lightning certainly took up the challenge and scored over half of their season’s points in the first two quarters of that game! The Bulldogs went on a rampage of their own, outscoring the Bulldogs to win by 15 and add impressively to their points tally. But that was only the first part of the challenge. The bar has been set for both teams. Improvement is easy to measure now. The rare back to back games at the end of the season provide coaches and players with the unique chance to measure what effects their efforts and adjustments midweek will have in the second game. Improvement for Drogheda could run as far winning the game. A big turnaround sure, but it is the last throw of the dice and the last chance for the Home Team to win one this year. All depends on the efforts put in. A big turnaround requires a big effort, but not beyond the realm of possibility. For the Bulldogs a base line for improvement is back to back wins, but the measureable is the score. Giving up another 15 points would be unacceptable and failing to replicate or exceed the offensive output would be a disappointment for sure. Am I being harsh? NO. As I said last week, if these guys live like pro’s for a week then everything is possible and more than that – probable! The final game of the week sees South Kildare end their debut season with a road trip to Tyrone and the increasingly awesome Titans. The Soldiers have the second best defence in the division, second only to the Titans who have given up an epic 7 points in 5 games played to date. That is an average of 1.4 points per game. The Soldiers defence will have to play inspired to come close to those numbers on Sunday and they must. The Titans have scored 166 points in the same 5 games don’t look like slowing down. Most teams who top scoring charts tend to do so with the help of a blowout result or two. 36, 20, 20, 44 & 46 is a steadily improving curve. Again an area that Kildare need to borrow something from their opponents. South Kildare have only put up 14 points this season. It is tough to be tough on new teams. Playing all of their games is after all a good start. But over the course of the last four months these teams have been in the best classroom of all. They have been learning what the game of football is all about. The Vikings, Trojans & Trinity all went through some form of this in their early years. The exploits of Trinity this year show just what can be done from humble beginnings. South Kildare’s points come scattered through their season. Hard to improve on performances in games against strong teams, but those are games where improvements matter the most. The Titans have already achieved a lot in their short existence. They are set to play Dundalk in the IAFL 2 Bowl game. Perhaps the most difficult thing for these guys to do is to continue to improve and stay grounded. They are without a doubt the biggest fish in the IAFL 2 pond – titanic even – but they must keep one eye on where they want to go as a team. The top is still two divisions away, but the path to the top has been forged by several teams. Much of what they do in the next few weeks will determine what kind of team the Titans will be for many years. Staying focussed with a bowl game looming and clinging to fundamentals when the chance to show off is right there are hard things to do, they are what Champions do!
Posted on: Sat, 02 Aug 2014 13:49:24 +0000